Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

The picture of an unborn baby on your editorial page of Nov. 4, is very poignant. It reminds us that an unborn baby is a living person.

No, the government does not have the right to force taxpayers to pay for abortions. Even if an abortion is performed within the first three or four weeks after conception, the embryo had formed a backbone, a spinal column and a complex nervous system. Simple kidneys, a liver and digestion system are taking place and the heart is pounding blood. Eyes and ears and arms and legs have begun to form.

Also, as President Reagan stated in 1984, “Medical doctors confirm that when the lives of the unborn are snuffed out they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing.”

Two weeks later, the President received a letter signed by 24 prominent medical obstetricians and gynecologists. The letter stated “Mr. President, in drawing attention to the capability of the human fetus to feel pain, you stand on firmly established ground.” This is true even in the early weeks.

Babies are very precious, I know, as I have lost two of them.